It’s the return of the Slim Shady we grew accustomed to earlier in his career: Indescribable flow and lyricism that remains unmatched, and as shameless as ever. Eminem has never been afraid of controversy, and on KAMIKAZE he addresses the state of rap and hip hop, getting constant criticism and the lack of acceptance for his previous album, Revival. Well, we’ve been poking the bear and now he’s biting back. As he’s mentioned in “Fall“, “…you wanted Shady, you got him.”

The album starts out strong and stays strong. Ringer is the perfect opener and sets the stage for the direction in which he took on the album. This track, along with Greatest, Lucky ft. Joyner Lucas, Not Alike ft. Royce Da 5’9″, Good Guy ft. Jessie Reyez are my favorites, with Venom (soundtrack for the movie of the same name) being a powerful album closer. I’m not doing a track by track review. I’ll conclude by saying this is one hell of a body of work. Eminem sounds so in his element and has delivered songs worth playing on repeat for the rest of the year. Actually, Kamikaze is the BEST rap album I’ve heard all year.

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